No, this video does not show cyclone Biparjoy in Karachi, Pakistan

By: Praveen Kumar
June 20 2023

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Context

In the wake of cyclone Biparjoy, over one lakh people were evacuated in India and Pakistan. The cyclone, which made its landfall in Kutch, Gujarat, on the night of June 15, created havoc in the western Indian state, leaving hundreds of villages without power supply. According to NDTV, the cyclone's landfall in Gujarat weakened the severe cyclonic storm and spared Pakistan its full force the next day.

As Biparjoy gripped the neighboring countries in fear, unrelated visuals claiming to show the impact of the cyclone were circulating on social media. A video that appears to be filmed over an ocean or a sea has been shared on Twitter with the claim it shows footage of Biparjoy near the waters of Karachi, Pakistan. The 29-second video shows gusty winds and waves with mist covering the horizon. The left side of the video shows a metal structure with some nets attached to a platform. A post sharing the video has garnered over 9,000 views so far. 

In Fact

A reverse image search using one of the keyframes of the video led us to the Russian social media platform VKontakte. A page called ‘Be Amazed’ had shared a smaller version of the same video on April 22, 2023. In this clip, the metal structure was on the right and not on the left, suggesting that a mirrored version was used in either of the posts. However, the camera angle and the visuals are exactly the same in the clip shared on Twitter. The caption of the video, originally written in Russian, read, “Stormy Waters.”

A shorter version of the video was also shared on the Instagram account ‘Schlumberger’ (@schlumberger_crew) on April 4, 2023. The video had over 5,700 likes. Here also, the metal structure was on the right side of the camera frame. The Instagram video caption read "Offshore Life," and does not mention where the video was filmed. The Instagram account’s bio suggests that it is an unofficial account that only posts content related to Schlumberger Limited or SLB—an oilfield services company with offshore oil rigs worldwide. We scrolled through the profile and found only photos and videos of oil drilling and of employees seemingly associated with Schlumberger.

According to a report by The Times of India, Biparjoy formed into a cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea on June 6. It made its landfall almost after ten days. As the video in question existed online at least weeks before Biparjoy even originated, it clearly does not show the impact of the cyclone.

The Verdict

An old video dating back to at least April 2023 has been shared to falsely claim that it shows the effects of cyclone Biparjoy, which only formed in early June.